You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

It may seem like common sense for a ship to immediately release safety lifeboats upon hull breach. The Titanic, however, did not release its first lifeboat until an entire hour elapsed.

[Lee Stewart]

Of the 2,223 people aboard the Titanic, 1,517 did not survive the collision with the iceberg. The ship was not even at full capacity -- it could hold more than 3,500 people.

[Lee Stewart]

The first time the immense White Star liner made its way into the water was on May 31, 1911 in Belfast. It's estimated that 100,000 people, or roughly one-third of the population in Belfast watched the just over a minute-long launch.

[Lee Stewart]

The Titanic measured 882 feet and 9 inches in length, making it the biggest vessel of its time. Today, the largest cruise ship is Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas, clocking in at nearly 1,200 feet long.

[Lee Stewart]

The giant vessel cost $7.5 million to build in the early 20th century, which would be equivalent to $183.4 million today.

[Lee Stewart]

Olympic, Titanic's sister ship was started 3 months before the Titanic. The Titanic is on the left. The ships were almost identical.

[Lee Stewart]

The ship took 26 months to build. Construction crews used 3 million rivets to build the 26,000-ton hull, a combination of iron and steel.

[Lee Stewart]

The ship's main anchor weighed 16 tons, or more than 30,000 pounds. Twenty horses were required to transport the anchor two miles from the casting site in the town of Netherton to the train station in Dudley in 1911.

[Lee Stewart]

On Sep. 30, 2015, a private collector bought the Titanic's last first-class lunch menu in an online auction for $88,000. The collector paid $18,000 more than the initial maximum price.

[Lee Stewart]